The researchers think it is likely that most flowering plants, or angiosperms, contain similar sucrose-susceptible genes, making their “sweetening technology” widely applicable. Credit: Cienpies Design ================================================================================================= Previous research has shown that the sugar sucrose plays a role in controlling key fruit genes involved in sugar metabolism. Efforts to control these genes succeeded in increasing the sugar content in fruit but also resulted in stunted growth. Researchers from Tohoku University in Japan used a bioinformatics search tool to find nucleotide sequences in the tomato genome similar to a known tobacco gene sequence that can be repressed by sucrose. When a special...

Okay, your HIGH is really screwin’ up my LAWN!!! People are IDIOTS and will ingest ANYTHING to catch a BUZZ — the latest — FLOWER SEEDS?! That’s right, people are CHEWING the seeds of: Hawaiian Baby Woodrose Sleepy Grass Blue Morning Glory Because they’re LEGAL, and apparently, mimic the high of LSD.

Trump vows to pay legal fees of supporters who 'knock the crap' out of tomato-throwers. Donald Trump got word from his security detail in Cedar Rapids on Monday that there could be someone in the audience with tomatoes -- so Trump reportedly decided to go ahead and take precautions. "If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them," Trump urged his supporters. Were anyone to feel concern about being prosecuted for assault in such a scenario, Trump reassured that, "I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees."

Kathrin Goldbach's family are reportedly afraid to face 'hatred of the world' Her boyfriend Andreas Lubitz flew the plane he was co-piloting into Alps Kathrin, brother Andreas and their parents have left home in Montabaur Close friends say family have no plans to return to close-knit community

The picture of Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz’ troubled state of mind grows more complex with the revelation, reported by International Business Times, that investigators have discovered that Lubitz “trawled the dark side of the web visiting, among other things, sites containing gay porn, suicide themes and sexual perversions.” This sheds new light on a seemingly minor detail from early reports: other pilots teased Lubitz by calling him “Tomato Andy” because he worked as a flight attendant before becoming a pilot. According to IBT, this was not merely an insulting reference to the food and beverage duties of a flight attendant;...

In the plane, the automatic alarm signal ‘Sink Rate’ sounds almost at the same time, according to the voice recorder. Shortly afterwards there is a loud bang, which sounds like someone trying to enter the cockpit. Sondheimer yells: ‘For God’s sake, open the door!’ In the background, passengers can be heard screaming. At 10.35am ‘loud, metallic banging against the cockpit door’ is heard again, according to the French authorities. The jet is still 7,000ft above the ground. About 90 seconds later there is a new warning message – ‘Ground! Pull up! Pull up!’ The pilot is heard shouting: ‘Open the...

In the days since audio was extracted from the black box recorder of crashed Germanwings flight 4U9525 suggesting that copilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately downed the plane, investigators and journalists have rushed to find an explanation for his actions. Initially, many hypothesized about the possibility of an extremist religious or ideological motive. In his apparently lacking significant religious or ideological commitments, Lubitz is speculated to have been mentally unstable. A concealed health issue has been offered as a clue. Thousands of words pile up in dozens of news sources to make up for Lubitz’s silence in the cockpit. The pounding...

SISTERON, France — The German co-pilot accused of crashing a passenger plane in the French Alps frequented a gliding club near the crash site as a child with his parents, according to a member of the club. Francis Kefer, a member of the club in the town of Sisteron, said on i-Tele television that Andreas Lubitz' family and other members of the gliding club in his home town of Montabaur, Germany, came to the region regularly between 1996 and 2003. ... The crash site is about 50 kilometers (30 miles) away from the Aero-club de Sisteron glider airfield.

A plant that produces both tomatoes and potatoes, called the TomTato, has been developed for the UK market. Ipswich-based horticultural firm Thompson and Morgan said the hybrid plants were not genetically modified. Similar plants have been created in the UK, but the firm said it was thought to be the first time they had been produced on a commercial scale. Guy Barter, of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), said it was looking at the plant with "real interest". Mr Barter said many of these plants - created by a technique known as grafting - had been created before but taste...

A Salafi group called the "Popular Egyptian Islamic Association" has warned Muslims against eating tomatoes on the grounds that the fruit is a "Christian food," NowLebanon.com has reported. The group based its claim on the fact that a shape resembling a cross is revealed when one cuts a tomato in half. The association published the warning on its Facebook page with a photo of a tomato cut in half, revealing a cross-shaped interior. A message posted on the page read, "Eating tomatoes is forbidden because they are Christian. [The tomato] praises the cross instead of Allah and says that Allah...

Green tomatoes can be tasty treats. But in the case of Dennis Eskew, they can also be ways to silence your wife. The 60-year-old Bozeman man was arrested for partner/family member assault after police say he shoved a green tomato in his wife's mouth.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Protesters threw tomatoes and shoes at U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's motorcade on Sunday during her first visit to Egypt since the election of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi. A tomato struck an Egyptian official in the face, and shoes and a water bottle landed near the armoured cars carrying Clinton's delegation in the port city of Alexandria. A senior state department official said that neither Clinton nor her vehicle, which were around the corner from the incident, were struck by any of the projectiles. Protesters chanted: "Monica, Monica", a reference to Former President Bill Clinton's extra-marital...

See the cross? See it? Why are you laughing? Warning! Your salad could be making you into an Infidel! "Salafist group warns tomatoes are 'Christian,'” by Angie Nassar for NowLebanon.com, June 12 (thanks to Lachlan) ...A Salafist group called the Popular Egyptian Islamic Association has come under fire after sending out a warning on Facebook urging its followers not to eat tomatoes because the vegetable (or fruit) is a Christian food. The group posted a photo on its page of a tomato - which appears to reveal the shape of a cross after being cut in half – along with...

A Salafist group from Egypt appears to be trying to retract a post on Facebook that warned that eating tomatoes are "forbidden because they are Christian." However, the Muslim traditionalist group, calling themselves the Popular Egyptian Islamic Association, apparently still finds tomatoes offensive if they are cut in such a way that reveals the shape of a cross, according to the Now Lebanon website. Along with a photo of a tomato cut in half to reveal what could be viewed as a cross, the group originally posted on Facebook: "Eating tomatoes is forbidden because they are Christian. [The tomato] praises...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. tomato growers on Monday said they have formally asked the U.S. Commerce Department to tear up a pricing agreement with Mexican producers that they say has become "a charade." Reggie Brown, executive vice president of the Florida Tomato Exchange, told Reuters U.S. producers want the pact voided so they can file a new anti-dumping complaint against Mexico. The rare request comes in a dispute that dates back to 1996, when U.S. industry filed a petition accusing Mexican producers of selling in the United States at unfairly low prices. Brown said the Commerce Department found that Mexican...

Call it a case of mistaken plant identity. A 15-year-old boy climbed into Angela Cartwright's kitchen window thinking to make off with a marijuana plant, but instead the young thief was actually stealing a potted tomato plant, a sheriff's arrest report shows. As he was running from Cartwright's house on Carmen Avenue near Holly Hill on Feb. 10 just after 7 a.m., the teen even yelled at Cartwright, "See, I have one of your pot plants!" the arrest report states. Cartwright had arrived at her residence that morning after leaving her 6-year-old son off at the school bus stop. When...

Steinbergers Had Just Gotten Off Flight From Israel, Forgot About Kid's Snack MONSEY, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — A family of four from Florida visiting relatives in New Jersey got an unwelcome surprise at the Customs gate — all because of some forgotten fruit and vegetables. The oversight was an expensive one that has the family fuming, reports CBS 2’s Sean Hennessey. “I don’t have to be traumatized like this. Nobody should have to be traumatized,” Suri Steinberger said. Suri and Peter Steinberger are livid after what they call an over-reaction by customs agents at Newark Liberty Airport. They were told they...

A former city mayor, Jim Rodgers, was ruing an expensive slip-up after his failure to vault a giant human tomato cost his Belfast council £24,000.Mr Rodgers accidentally kicked Belfast City Council employee Lorraine Mallon in the head in a publicity stunt that went spectacularly wrong. Miss Mallon, who was dressed up as the huge fruit for a photo shoot to promote a gourmet food fair, suffered a slipped disc in the ill-fated leap. She brought a negligence case against the council and a settlement was reached this week in Belfast High Court. She has been paid £24,021.75 with the council...

A dispute over a tomato in South Miami-Dade sent a Miami Beach man to the hospital with a fractured neck and left police scrambling to identify his attacker. Robert Lerner, 44, was on his way to the Redland area for a photo shoot with his 10-year-old daughter just after 9 a.m. on Jan. 28 when she became fascinated by the sight of a tomato field.

On Tuesday night’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on NBC, during an interview with MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, when Maddow recounted a recent incident in which a man unsuccessfully threw a tomato at Sarah Palin at a public event at a mall, Fallon joked that it was "awful" because the thrower "didn’t come close" to hitting Palin. Fallon: "Didn’t hit her at all? Didn’t come close? Awful." Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the late Tuesday/early Wednesday, December 8th/9th Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on NBC: JIMMY FALLON: Did you hear about what’s going on with Sarah...

SACRAMENTO -- A former official of a major California tomato processor has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy charges involving bribes paid to food companies, the first charges against a senior executive of the firm at the center of a federal corruption investigation, prosecutors said Wednesday. Jeffrey Beasley, former vice president for industrial sales at SK Foods in Monterey, will admit that he took part in plans to pay the bribes and ship tomato products with misleading content labels, inferior quality and inflated prices, the U.S. attorney's office in Sacramento said. A former SK Foods sales broker, Randall Rahal, has...

Sacramento has been churning out Campbell's tomato soup for 62 years, and through all that time, the goal has remained the same: Keep the iconic soup tasting the same way it has since 1897. That just got a lot harder. In late July, the Campbell Soup Co. began shipping a new formulation of its oldest and often best-selling brand with a 32 percent cut in sodium that brings it in line with federal health guidelines. In the processed-food business, that's a huge risk. Salt is an effective and cheap flavor enhancer with no known substitute. Even a 10 percent cutback...

Hillard Green has the right idea. The old adage "Waste not want not" applies for sure in these days of exorbitant food prices. And those of us who grow our own have always known the value of preserving nature's bounty for off-season use. Since tomatoes are easy to grow and often plentiful, you may find yourself up to your ears in the ripe, scarlet fruit as frost approaches—and a few hints on the preservation of the harvest may be welcome. I've also taken the canning jar shortage into account in preparing this article, and have included some guides to the...

The plant fungus that caused the Irish Potato Famine in the 1840s has shown up in Plattsburgh, and experts say residents need to act quickly. It's called "late blight" and it affects eggplants, potatoes and tomatoes. The fungus hasn't made it this far north in about a decade, but it moves quickly and can kill an infected plant in as short as a week and a half. The signs that your plants have late blight are brownish lesions on the leaves which make them look wet. Late blight was discovered in the region at unnamed major box stores on Friday....

Two Florida farms have decided to participate in a deal to increase the wages of the state's tomato pickers in an agreement with a farmworker advocacy group and upscale Whole Foods Market, the grocery chain announced Thursday. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers and Whole Foods said the farms will pay pickers 1 cent more per pound of tomatoes sold to the Austin, Texas, based company. Whole Foods will foot the bill. Florida provides most of the nation's domestic winter tomato crop. Florida workers earn about 47 cents per 32-pound bucket. That can mean an average of about $12 an hour...

Scientists have developed purple tomatoes which they hope may be able to keep cancer at bay. The fruit are rich in an antioxidant pigment called anthocyanin which is thought to have anti-cancer properties. A team from the John Innes Centre, Norwich, created the tomatoes by incorporating genes from the snapdragon flower, which is high in anthocyanin. The study, published in Nature Biotechnology, found mice who ate the tomatoes lived longer. Anthocyanins, found in particularly high levels in berries such as blackberry, cranberry and chokeberry, have been shown to help significantly slow the growth of colon cancer cells. They are also...

Freddy Strano spent much of last week mowing down 100 acres of perfectly good tomatoes. The Homestead grower was trying to cut his losses and bring to a close what has been an awful season. Strano estimates he has lost $500,000 or more this winter. The problem: He couldn't sell his tomatoes for anywhere close to what it cost to grow and harvest them. ''They were beautiful tomatoes, some of the better ones we've had in years,'' said Strano, whose family has been in the tomato business since 1939. ``The prices were just horrible. It's demoralizing. It's going to cripple...

Soggy sandwiches will soon be history, for the world's first non-leaking tomatoes are about to go on sale in the UK. Leading retail-chain TESCO will be selling drip-free tomatoes by the end of the week.s The packs of four will be on shelves for 99p, reports The Sun. Usual tomatoes leak eight per cent of water after being sliced. Tesco buyer Emma Pettitt said: “It’s the best thing since sliced bread.” The non-leaking tomatoes were grown in Holland and are part of a long-term tomato seed breeding programme that began in 1986. After trials using more than 100 varieties the...

NEW YORK: Chairman Senate Muhammadmian Soomro may be having a friend in White House if Barak Hussain Obama finally succeeds in his presidential bid. Hardly a few people know about Soomro's link with Obama, which he never discussed it in public. But in private interactions with influential Pakistanis here in the US, Obama disclosed that Soomro's father was his host when he went on a hunting expedition in Jacobabad during his visit to Pakistan in 1981. While in Karachi, Obama had stayed at the residence of his college friend, Hassan Chandio. In Jacobabad, he was the guest of Soomro...

Q: How does information from state and local levels flow to and between the federal agencies? A: The whole system is flawed. The relationship between FDA and CDC is strained; it’s improved but still lacking. It’s not clear who is really in charge. Authority is split up in a way that decisions get bogged down and you don’t have anyone in command. You need that to effectively launch and oversee an outbreak investigation. I’m not sure who’s in charge. We have people identified as being in charge. We need someone that understands outbreaks, not just manages them. In this case,...

Searching high and low for someone to blame for contaminated tomatoes, CNN’s Lou Dobbs tried: imported produce; a “moronic” Food and Drug Administration; and finally, President George W. Bush. In the June 16 edition of “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” Dobbs slammed the FDA and the president for not controlling the salmonella outbreak. After claiming that the FDA is “led by complete moronic, unengaged incompetents” and calling them “idiots,” Dobbs proceeded to link the spread of salmonella to Bush. “As for this administration, were a responsible president at the helm of this country, I would wonder why he is not taking action,...

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican growers on Wednesday called a U.S. warning against certain types of their tomatoes unjust, saying it has brought exports to a halt and could cripple Mexico's $900 million industry. Growers said their produce is subject to double the scrutiny that U.S. tomatoes face: inspected first by Mexican officials and then again at the border when crossing into the U.S. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is still hunting for the source of a salmonella outbreak linked to three types of raw tomatoes that has sickened 167 people in 17 U.S. states since mid-April. It has...

MIAMI (Reuters) - Florida's tomato industry is in "complete collapse" and growers in California and Mexico are having trouble selling their crops as U.S. regulators hunt the source of a salmonella outbreak linked to certain tomato varieties, growers said on Tuesday. In Florida, the No. 1 U.S. tomato producer, $40 million worth of tomatoes will rot unless the U.S. Food and Drug Administration quickly traces the source of the outbreak and clears the state's produce, an industry official said. "We've had to stop packing, stop picking," said Reggie Brown, executive vice president of the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange. "The stuff...

<p> FDA Home Page | Search FDA Site | FDA A-Z Index | Contact FDA Salmonellosis Outbreak in Certain Types of Tomatoes Updated: June 9, 2008 Topics on this Page IntroductionUpdate on the OutbreakNews UpdatesAdvice for Retailers, Restaurateurs and Food Service Operators Consumer Health Information What Is FDA Doing?Information About Salmonella How Do I Report a Tomato Complaint? Introduction The Food and Drug Administration is alerting consumers nationwide that a salmonellosis outbreak appears to be linked to consumption of certain types of raw red tomatoes and products containing raw red tomatoes. The bacteria causing the illnesses are Salmonella serotype Saintpaul,...

Watering Tomato Plants With Diluted Seawater Boosts Levels Of AntioxidantsWatering tomato plants with diluted seawater boosts levels of antioxidants, scientists report. (Credit: Courtesy of public-domain-photos.com) ScienceDaily (Apr. 29, 2008) — Watering tomatoes with diluted seawater can boost their content of disease-fighting antioxidants and may lead to healthier salads, appetizers, and other tomato-based foods, scientists in Italy report. Besides their use in a variety of ethnic food dishes, tomatoes are one of the most commonly grown home garden vegetables, particularly cherry tomatoes. Scientists have linked tomatoes to several health benefits, including protection against prostate cancer and heart disease. Researchers have known...

The quest for the perfect tomato began in New Brunswick nearly 50 years ago and ended, for now, in a field south of Tel Aviv, Israel. After eight years of taste tests from chefs and tomato lovers, agricultural scientists at Rutgers University say they have resurrected one of the most delicious Jersey tomatoes ever. The elusive "Ramapo" tomato seed has been reproduced in Israel and 572,000 certified organic seeds were shipped this month to New Brunswick. The Ramapo tomato, named after a New Jersey Indian tribe and developed at Rutgers in 1968, will be back for this summer's growing season...

LONDON: Craving for something sweet and sour at the same time? Don't think twice. Just have a bowl of spicy and creamy tomato soup to satisfy your desire. Yes, a bowl of hot tomato soup every day can boost fertility among men, according to scientists. Researchers at the UK-based University of Portsmouth have discovered that lycopene, which gives tomatoes their bright red colouring, can turn sperm into super-sperm, sources reported. The conclusion came after the researchers studied the effect of lycopene in the diet on a group of six healthy men, all in their early forties. They were asked to...

The California Tomato Commission is supposed to be in the business of promoting the blessed red globe with funds that come from growers and shippers. But something else has been happening with the tomato money. Private plane travel. Four-figure dinners at Morton's. Conferences in Cabo San Lucas, with friends and family along on the commission dime. It took auditors 128 pages to document it all. The story of the California Tomato Commission is an all too familiar one. When a government thinks that nobody is watching, bad things can happen. There are just too many governments, boards and commissions for...

The state Department of Food and Agriculture is asking Attorney General Jerry Brown to investigate the Fresno-based California Tomato Commission after an audit turned up lavish spending on trips and meals. In several cases, employees and board members charged the commission for travel by family and friends. They also spent freely at board meetings, including a dinner meeting at which the bill included almost $600 worth of wine. The audit covered the 2003 through 2005 fiscal years. It did not provide a total for the spending deemed questionable. "The Tomato Commission operated like a private trade association, not a government...

We have always been told there is no recovery from persistent vegetative state - doctors can only make a sufferer's last days as painless as possible. But is that really the truth? ...For three years, Riaan Bolton has lain motionless, his eyes open but unseeing. After a devastating car crash doctors said he would never again see or speak or hear. Now his mother, Johanna, dissolves a pill in a little water on a teaspoon and forces it gently into his mouth. Within half an hour, as if a switch has been flicked in his brain, Riaan looks around his...

Scientists in Himachal Pradesh have come up with a hybrid variety of tomato that is larger, redder and highly resistant to diseases. The hybrid tomato is called 'Garima' and is developed at the department of vegetables at the Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry near Solan, 60 km from here. The Solan hills produce the bulk of the state's tomato, so much so that the region is also called the 'tomato bowl' of Himachal Pradesh. "This tomato has a 20 percent higher yield and also weighs far more than the traditional varieties grown in the region," said Arun Joshi, a...

BRANSON — In the wake of Big Idea Productions' bankruptcy and sale to new owner Classic Media, VeggieTales characters are struggling to define their post-Big Idea lives. In a modest but clean condominium in Branson, Mo., Bob the Tomato sits on a rented couch and nibbles cheese curls. The window overlooks the busy thoroughfare jammed with tourist traffic. Bob's chin shows three days of stubble, his eyes the emotional scars of a recent bout with depression, but tonight he'll be performing again for the first time since Jonah — A VeggieTales Movie. After bouncing around the country for the past...

Scientists at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev have identified why it is good for us to consume large quantities of tomatoes - and say that the best way to eat them is cooked up with some olive oil and cheese. Scientists have long believed that the carotenoids found in fruits and vegetables have a cancer preventive effect. In particular, studies have found that as the consumption of tomato products increases, risk of certain types of cancer decreases - even more so than when a variety of vegetables are eaten. Over the years, studies have found that the risk of up...

Ordering a sandwich for lunch today? How about some lettuce and a slice of cardboard with that? Cardboard. That's how customers describe the taste of winter tomatoes to produce-man Joe Procacci. Looking to improve off-season flavor, Mr. Procacci developed a tomato called the UglyRipe. It's exactly what its name implies. Scarred by crevices, it's not much to look at, but its growers advertise it as "exceptional" in taste. Customers apparently agree. Procacci initially saw sales of his Florida-grown tomatoes triple - until the Florida Tomato Committee put the kibosh on the UglyRipe last year because it doesn't meet the committee's...